Wednesday 1 June 2011

WE'RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER







So was the cry we used to hear from every minister, every speech, 10 and more times . (For those of short memory, this was just before the worlds "Big" and "Society" became buzz for the first time. I know it's hard; it changes so often, but do try to keep up.

Anyway.... from the people at the very top, to the scu... I mean the people at the very bottom.

Oh yes. Government ministers were to take public transport and share cars; expenses were to be managed properly and only paid for things they were meant to be paid for; we were ALL going to take our holidays Doon the Watter, and the English would all take theirs in Brighton, Bournemouth or Birmingham.

And it didn’t last a whole week before the idiot Spellman (of Forst W-turns fame) was taking her chauffeur driven car 100 meters down the road, and some prat of a junior minister (whose name completely escapes me now) had taken a personal limo, with chauffeur, abroad, where it is not the done thing to take government cars without permission.

Trains? Buses? You have to be kidding. Not for the likes of the UK government's ministers.

And as I mentioned a few posts ago, despite subjecting himself to the indignities, no tortures, of ChavAir and O’ScallyAir, Cameron has proved, with two foreign holidays in the space of as many months, that he is well above this “holidays in Britain” malarkey designed for the proles. Remember that Cabinet Office ministers made it clear that they didn't want any further extensions to airports which carried the workers on their nasty package holidays... Nice one Olly!

Now we learn that while we have been told that there are either no rises or tiny rise, because the economy, wrecked by the rich, cannot stand it, the fat cats have been filling their boots, and how.




First there is the accusation (made by an ignoble lord) that 85% of lords use the incredibly generous expenses system as a salary, and claim regardless of whether a penny has been spent. And this week we are informed that the top bosses’ salaries were increased by 32%, and the VERY top ones by 86%. Makes your 2% look sick as a parrot, n’est-ce pas?

So you old age pensioners who have lost 25% of your heating money despite heating costs increasing by between 3 and 4 times the fiddled inflation figure; you sick people who have been stripped of your Incapacity Benefit and have to wait for up to a year for your appeal to be heard during which time you may die, as indeed some of you have done; you people who have been made redundant and find that despite paying for 30 or 40 years into the National Insurance Scheme at 10% or 11% of your salary, for just this very eventuality, you are not entitled to a sou in dole money, because your partner has a job... for now.

This is what the rich think of you:






YOU’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER SUCKERS!

11 comments:

  1. I wonder if Lord Taylor has met Mr Ben Dover in the showers yet ?

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  2. Well, it's all part of the joy of prison life. He should have thought about that possibility before he decided to steal.

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  3. I couldn't believe his lawyer actually used the "inspiration to young black people" rubbish to defend him. What message is he inspiring - "attain power so you can steal from taxpayers"?

    Laughable.

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  4. The EU gravy train just rolls on though. Totally unaffected by any 'cuts' and expanding it's remit via overseas embassies and such like. I think they kept their budget increase to 5% this year . Bless.
    I found this EU job after 2 minutes looking and even after reading the job description twice I still don't know what it is. Any ideas ?...

    https://www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/fe/tpl_ScottishPortal01.asp?s=PyAxDIfSqHTyVvHqn&jobid=101415,6582988758&key=72665019&c=596565210256&pagestamp=seazdxtoiuswxofkti

    This one was a council job in Shetland. Not sure if it's EU as I've no idea what it is for.

    https://www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/fe/tpl_ScottishPortal01.asp?s=NoxZwCHeRpGSxUuGpm&jobid=101922,2315135234&key=72665019&c=596565210256&pagestamp=setyqgiitpbowbvkxk

    Cuts what cuts ?
    These two jobs will cost £40k of much needed cash somewhere else

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  5. tris


    Not wishing to appear pedantic but I did say Cameron is spot on with

    'WE'RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER'

    Its the experience off and outcomes which will be totally different.

    We are gonna be worse off and Cameron and co will (a) be totally unaffected or (b) even better off then before.



    Political Economy regards the proletarian ... like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being. It leaves this to criminal law, doctors, religion, statistical tables, politics, and the beadle.

    Marx, Wages of Labour (1844)

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  6. Not only is HMG cutting the winter fuel allowance, it is piling needless extra cost onto electricity bills by insisting that power companies must buy "renewable" energy from wind turbines etc at several times the normal retail cost which is passed on to the consumer. One of the greatest advocates of this lunacy (originating in EU Directives) is Mr. Salmond. In this respect he is totally in the supranational, global governance team.

    Help the Aged and other charities will tell you that there is a mathematically fairly precise correlation between the number of deaths of old people from hypothermia and the combined price of gas and electricity. With the reduction in the winter fuel allowance, this must be given an extra tweak. I think it would be fair to ask MPs and MSPs how many extra deaths they expect from this cause. How have they factored it into their calculations of the Public Good?

    I would also suggest that the extra cost of "renewables" should be itemised on our electricity bills - as it is a tax, just like VAT. Everybody believes in "transparency" these days, don't they?
    Greenies could pride themselves on their contribution to "saving the planet" and others might take a different view.

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  7. I didn't hear that bit Doug. Thieves are rarely an inspiration to most anyone in the community, I would have thought.

    Besides, if he saw himself as an inspiration to black people, I'd have thought he was an ever greater let down to society...

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  8. Ukiper:

    Well it seems to be something to do with delivering a EU funded project, which will work with communities to help them to develop a rural strategy.

    It sounds to me like it’s similar to the Big Society rubbish that Cameron is always spouting about, and never getting anywhere with.

    At £8.08 per hour for a Programme Co-ordinator job, it’s not overly generous. You’d not get me doing it.

    The second one in a government post involving the curriculum for excellence. It isn’t very well paid either.

    I should think that vast numbers of these peripheral jobs are of dubious value, and maybe we shouldn’t have them. On the other hand, we’d probably have to pay someone in the region of half that salary just to stay alive on the dole.

    I should imagine it’s probably better to get something out of them.

    The ones I find offensive are the jobs with no particular title, and a vague job description that are advertised in the Sundays and carry salaries of £70- £100 thousand pa.

    I’d get rid of them and take on some more at £20,000.

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  9. LOL Niko....

    I rather like horses...

    I guess you are right though. Oh well, as long as someone buys me some hay, I'll be fine.

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  10. Yes Mr S:

    I think it would be a good idea to have the Green Energy cost noted separately in the bills.

    Maybe even, like free range eggs and factory eggs, we could be allowed to choose which electricity we bought. Thus those who care could pay for the privilege of having green electricity, while the people like me who don’t, could buy the cheap stuff. (I have to say, in clarification, that whilst I drew a parallel between eggs and electricity and am on the devil may care side on green power, I’d eat my foot before I’d touch a battery egg.)

    I know that Salmond is an advocate of it. I suspect that this is largely because we are past peak oil, and with the English government in the hands of the Tories taxing the oil exploration business out of existence as a punishment for us in Scotland telling them to get stuffed at the election.

    We really have to have some jobs here in Scotland, and if the English government won’t do anything to encourage industry, we have to do what we can. I suspect that since everyone is going to do green anyway (aren't the Tories the greenest government yet, by their own proud boast), Scotland, which has no end of green potential, might as well get what it can out of the deal. If not, they'll simply buy it in from Norway.

    [It doesn’t pay to cross the Tories; they have no compunction about letting you starve to death (unless you’re a beater for one of their shoots, of course). We probably should have voted for them in droves, then we'd have been treated like human beings.]

    The tragedy of the old having their winter fuel allowance cut will be that more will die. George Osborne will be culpable. It’s called homicide George! You'll be no better than a murderer.

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  11. I have a paper from the King Juan Carlos University which demonstrates pretty conclusively that each "green" job in Spain destroys 2.2 jobs in the real economy. There is another paper, which I have not yet read, claiming that the rate of job destruction in the UK from this cause is higher - something like 3.7 .

    With EU encouragement Spain went down the "renewable energy" route very fast with solar and wind power. This has now come to a crashing halt and the government is simply tearing up the contracts which guaranteed the wind and solar power rent seekers their prices. Cuts of up to 30% have been imposed.

    The "feed in" tariffs for solar power were particularly attractive and caused some interesting side effects. Some solar arrays were actually producing power AT NIGHT! Either the direct coupling of a generator or the use of one to power strong lights to play on the solar panels increased "productivity" no end.

    Having been involved with the Common Agricultural Policy from its introduction into the UK, I am not in the least surprised.

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